The highlight so far has without a doubt been Kelly Slater's ten in the Round of 32 against Joan Duru. While the spotlight has been shining on the five surfers contending for the World Title, Slater somehow managed to still look like the greatest of all time surfer that he is, and show the world what he is stil capable of.

Slater, of course, does have something to surf for – with John John Florence back in the event, Slater needs to finishe three heats or so ahead of the young Hawaiian superstar to claim a spot in the USA's Tokyo Olympic team. In some ways, it's a mathematical world title-esque showdown of its own.

But ah yes, the World Title showdown. We started with five, and now we're down to three:

Of the five of them, Medina has looked the most likely to terminator his way to the final, and ultimately the trophy, despite having had a lacklustre last couple of months while Italo has conversely looked on fire. You'd be a brave idiot to bet against Medina for Saturday.

2. Billy Kemper and Paige Alms Won Pe'ahi Again

The WSL Big Wave World Whatver It Is Now ran today at Jaw, Pe'ahi, Maui, Hawaii and once again Billy Kemper took out the men's side, making him a four time winner of the event, which is just ridiculous, right?! They should go ahead and name the event after him probably. That topped off a pretty decent week for Kemper, who won the Pipe Trials and surfed in the Billabong Pipe Masters this week too, where he smashed his Round 1 heat that included World No.1 Italo Ferreira. He ended up losing in the round of 32 to Seth Moniz, but still... what a week for the dude.

Paige Alms won the women's side of the event, repeating her 2016 win at the same wave. Aussie Felicity Palmateer finished second.

Rip Curl dropped this great four minute clip of Owen Wright talking about his history of surfing the North Shore and, more specifically, Pipeline. What a bummer he's not still in the event, there's very few people we'd rather see take the prestigious title of Pipe Master. The bloke is unbelievable out there.

4. Nate Florence's Pipeline POV

While we're still on Hawaii, let's check in with Nate Florence as he shows us what it's like to paddle out at Pipeline. This was nice of him to do for me, 'cause I'm pretty confident I'll never do this in real life. Cheers, Nate.

5. Pumping West Aussie Baiyungu Country

Cut to some local elder wisdom, this video of absolutely off its head West Aussie lefts is so bloody unreal. Mad shoutouts to the underground chargers Josh Cattlin, Nate Brejnak, Phillip Read, Shaun Manners, Damien Warr, Shaun Howe, Owen Schultz and more going hard here. 10 stars to all involved.

6. Wade Carmichael Got a Big New Rusty Sticker

One of the most popular dudes on the Championship Tour amongst the Australian surf community is the underdog powerhouse from Avoca, Wade Carmichael. Good news for all then that Rusty have gone and signed him up and chucked him on their team. Not a bad little move from Rusty either, claiming some WSL Championship Tour presence for the first time in yonks with a few swift strokes of a biro.

Billabong dropped this ad for their boardies this week. In it they use the voices of Jed and Vaughan from famed surf podcast Ain't That Swell and it's a bloody ripper of an idea perfectly executed. Hooray for creativity.

The most underrated surf movie of all time (in my opinion) was a movie that Andrew Mooney starred in and narrated where he travelled up the coast surfing with no money, doing odd jobs along the way. It was gold. Another movie by Mooney, A Month On The Moon is Ozzie Wright's pick for epic underrated movie. Those two movies don't have anything to do with this one apart from the fact that it's about Andrew Mooney. Anyway, how good is that left they find here? Note: More often than not when you see Canadian surfing, it's on the West Coast of the giant country. This here is the East Coast. Newfoundland? Nova Scotia? I have no idea, but I think I better go.

9. Teaser For Laura's Movie

Laura Enever has been working on a big wave doco/movie that follows her journey progressing in the madman endeavour. And this is the first bit of footage we've seen of it yet. Only 16 seconds, but it's enough to get a sense of its vibe and start getting excited for sure.

10. Jordy Smith: Beyond the Tour (Pre Pipeline)

O'Neill gives us some behind the scenes insight to Jordy Smith and his campaign on the Championship Tour. Kind of annoying the mojo this kind of (admittedly very good) content loses when its protagonist drops out of the Title Race a couple of days after it drops. Ah well... Still worth a watch. It's rad to see Jordy's improvement on the North Shore, but do you think this year that just slipped by was Jordy's best shot at the Title? Or do you think he'll be back for another bite next year?